Dikkerboom, Anne (2022) From Casual Labour to Chamas: An Analysis of Gender Differences Between Coping Strategies Used by Men and Women in the Urban Informal Settlement of Kawangware. Master thesis, Cultural Geography - Climate Adaptation Governance (CAG).
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Abstract
Residents of urban informal settlements are vulnerable to hazards because of lack of basic services, and because of individual characteristics like gender. It is argued that women are more vulnerable than others, and can thus less easily cope with challenges and disasters. Research on coping strategies often discard the importance of the gender variable, and scholars who do include this disagree on how gender affects coping. The contradiction between scholars arguing gender does not affect coping and research showing gender does influence these strategies in Kenya, combined with lack of research on coping strategies in informal settlements in the country, provides a research gap. This paper addresses the gap by uncovering challenges and coping strategies in the urban informal settlement Kawangware (in Nairobi), answering the following question; How does gender shape the way in which individuals articulate their coping strategies in urban informal settlements in Nairobi? via secondary analysis of qualitative data. Findings suggest that gender does shape the way in which both coping strategies and their underlying challenges are articulated. Men and women mentioned challenges from seven categories, namely: Money, Health, Housing, Employment, Public facilities, School, and Safety, violence & substance abuse. Not only did women focus on specific categories (like Health and Safety, violence & substance abuse) more often than men, but they were also the only ones that considered male disadvantages. Additionally, some men argued that six issues within the Safety, violence & substance abuse category were not present in Kawangware, while multiple female respondents stated that the issues were prevalent. The coping strategies that got mentioned by residents of Kawangware can be sorted into three categories: seeking help from institutions or groups, seeking help from individuals and personal solutions. Specific solutions within these categories sometimes differed per gender, which suggests that gender affects the use of coping strategies in Kawangware. Ultimately, this paper aims to contribute to the evaluation of existing coping strategies, based on which recommendations for future ways of coping can be made.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Name supervisor: | Mc Dermott, R.P. |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Sep 2022 11:55 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Sep 2022 11:55 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/183 |
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